Lenovo offers 1GB of Intel Turbo Memory as an add-on option, for ~$36. Everything I've read indicates that real world performance *decreases* with Intel Turbo Memory in Vista. I'm going XP, I doubt that MS will backport it to SP3, and I'm probably not going to go Linux sans VM, and not sure if any Linux distros have or will bother with Intel Turbo Memory. Intel Turbo Memory is a safe skip, right? I could also just install it myself if I needed to at a later date, seems the Mini PCIe cards are commercially available, although at a slightly higher price point, found one at $39.

Scott

Post subject:

Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 3:27 pm

Site Admin

Joined: Sun Feb 04, 2007 11:44 amPosts: 6035

It isn't just "safe" to skip it, I highly *recommend* you skip it. For more information see my article on the subject:

As I have indicated in that article, you are best off spending the money on additional RAM instead. Scott.

mstcrow5429

Post subject: Re: Intel Turbo Memory - Safe Skip?

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:40 pm

Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:54 amPosts: 196Location: Minneapolis, MN

Do you know what the I/O rates are for Intel Turbo Memory? I just maxed out my T61 to 4GB of RAM, and hope to get it a SSD soon, so not likely to buy any, but quite curious as to what its specs were, to help learn why it failed. Tanks.

Scott

Post subject: Re: Intel Turbo Memory - Safe Skip?

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:54 pm

Site Admin

Joined: Sun Feb 04, 2007 11:44 amPosts: 6035

Intel's "Turbo memory" is a dead technology. If you want SSD-like performance without the high price, then I recommend 2nd gen. Hybrid drives like the Momentus XT. Scott.

mstcrow5429

Post subject: Re: Intel Turbo Memory - Safe Skip?

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 2:12 pm

Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:54 amPosts: 196Location: Minneapolis, MN

Yes, Intel seems rather embarrassed by the whole thing, but I was curious at to its historical performance. Do you recommend any other hybrid drives beyond the Momentum XT? It has an idle power draw of 0.8W, while the Travelstar 5K250 series HD currently installed has an idle power draw of 0.55W. While the seek power draw is lower on the Momentum XT, the hard drive is mostly idle. My current understanding is that only Segate has hybrid drives, with Hitachi coming out with some later this year. Thanks.

Scott

Post subject: Re: Intel Turbo Memory - Safe Skip?

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 3:36 pm

Site Admin

Joined: Sun Feb 04, 2007 11:44 amPosts: 6035

Quote:

It has an idle power draw of 0.8W, while the Travelstar 5K250 series HD currently installed has an idle power draw of 0.55W. While the seek power draw is lower on the Momentum XT, the hard drive is mostly idle.

Even if the seek power draw was the same (and the drives actually needed to seek the same number of times to do the same amount of work), a savings of 0.25W during idle is insignificant considering the overall power consumption. But I'd bet that the reduced seek power consumption of the Momentus XT, combined with the fact that a Hybrid drive would need to seek far less often due to the SSD cache, means that the overall drive power consumption of the Momentus would in fact be equal if not less than the Travelstar.

Quote:

My current understanding is that only Segate has hybrid drives, with Hitachi coming out with some later this year.

That is correct. Scott.

mstcrow5429

Post subject: Re: Intel Turbo Memory - Safe Skip?

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 4:06 pm

Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:54 amPosts: 196Location: Minneapolis, MN

Quote:

My current understanding is that only Segate has hybrid drives, with Hitachi coming out with some later this year.

-----

That is correct. Scott.

Any idea when? I'd like to hold off and wait for competition to bring hybrid drive prices down, if I do that instead of an SSD. Thanks.

Scott

Post subject: Re: Intel Turbo Memory - Safe Skip?

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 4:40 pm

Site Admin

Joined: Sun Feb 04, 2007 11:44 amPosts: 6035

Sometime in 2011 is about all I know, and since it looks like it will be an ODD hybrid combo, it may not be in direct competition with the Seagate Momentus XT anyway. I've been using the Momentus XT drives in several systems for a while now, and highly recommend them. Scott.

All of those tests would appear to be irrelevant due to the fact that they were performed on the original version of the drive. Since then the firmware has gone through several revisions (I've updated one of mine twice), and the hardware itself may have been updated as well. I have no empirical power data of my own to contribute, but if you read the detailed article on laptop power consumption that I linked to in my previous post, you'll see that the HDD plays a very small role in overall power use, making the HDD 0.25W idle power consumption difference you mention a "non-issue". I can however confirm that the performance improvement over a standard 7200 rpm drive is fantastic, the faster boot time alone was well worth it. Scott.

mstcrow5429

Post subject: Re: Intel Turbo Memory - Safe Skip?

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:55 pm

Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:54 amPosts: 196Location: Minneapolis, MN

I'll post what I end up doing. However, it does seem to have a large amount of problems with Macbooks and Macbook Pros; chirping noises, beach ball of death, platters not spinning down, etc. I'm guessing it's an OS X issue, as most Windows complaints are about battery life.

mstcrow5429

Post subject: Re: Intel Turbo Memory - Safe Skip?

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:49 am

Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:54 amPosts: 196Location: Minneapolis, MN

Disturbingly, Seagate does not make release notes for firmware updates available. They also first attempt to elide the request for the release notes; rather sketchy.

Scott

Post subject: Re: Intel Turbo Memory - Safe Skip?

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:28 pm

Site Admin

Joined: Sun Feb 04, 2007 11:44 amPosts: 6035

HDD firmware updates are a rare thing (esp. as compared to motherboard BIOS and optical drive firmware), so when they are released, I generally assume that upgrading is important if not mandatory. Release notes would definitely be nice, but whether I have them or not would have little or no effect on my upgrade plans. Scott.

mstcrow5429

Post subject: Re: Intel Turbo Memory - Safe Skip?

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 5:08 pm

Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:54 amPosts: 196Location: Minneapolis, MN

I'm considering an OCZ SSD, and they issue release notes indicating both resolved issues as well as open issues.

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